CLICHÉ
by hollyandthediamonds
Summary: There are standards for original characters that every fiction writer holds his or herself accountable for. If your OC is too physically perfect, un-defeatable, or even the damsel, then she is a Sue; Boring, cliche. My father told me that I was the definition of perfection, un-defeatable, without flaw. But I am not a cliche, nor a Mary Sue. My name is Mari. Tsu, Mari.
1. I

The first day of the school year is said to be daunting. I had never been frightened of going to school. Of course, it took more than being packed in a room full of human children to frighten me. Junior High was much easier, I had room to breathe. Though, even in Junior High, there were similar…routines that had been passed on.

On that first day, it isn`t likely for teachers to delve into the lesson plan, even if we had been in our third year. It remained a day to recognize our peers, get to know them. There are little games that are played, introductions. Though, most of the students in your class will be familiar, as they are most likely the same as they had been the year before, and the year before that. Yet, every once in a while, someone new managed to land their way into homeroom.  
This year, it was Tsu, Mari.  
I could hear them talking about her before she had even entered the room. It was hard not to hear the confusion and concern from the other students, chattering on excitedly about the newcomer and her unnerving presence.

"Her last name, there`s no meaning… Just _Tsu_."

"She might not be Japanese. Did you see her coloring?"

"Yeah, but Minamino`s coloring is similar and he`s Japanese. At least, I _think_ he is."

Yes, I had once been hazed for my appearance. It wasn`t anything new. It certainly had no affect on my _feelings_. Once my peers had realized that I would not entertain their speculations, they had accepted me and focused their petty gossip on another.  
Though this new subject did not seem to be affected by the endless blabber either. The room had hushed significantly when Mari Tsu slid inside, trying to go unnoticed.  
It was true, her coloring was unusual. Even more unusual were her features.

"Her head looks like a cherry blossom."

A fit of giggles erupted to my left as more joined in on hazing the girl for her cotton-candy, light pink bob.  
I watched as Mari Tsu`s piercing, unnaturally colored, amber eyes made their way around the room, never blinking once. Though her expression was innocent enough, her eyes were terrifying. It was no wonder now why the students were on edge. The olive tone of her skin was the only tribute to Japanese culture.  
We kicked off that first class with the usual introductions. Every student stood from their seat and introduced themselves in a formal manner, and then finished with one goal they would like to accomplish for the year. Most of which were excellent test scores and a desire to be more studious.  
But Tsu, Mari had to be different from everyone else. She stood, her back to the class, as she was sitting front and center.

"Hello,"

She greeted us, though she did not turn to meet our eyes. Her voice was dainty, like a wind chime, forcing everyone into a dead silence to hear as she continued,

"My name is Tsu, Mari, and I want to fall in love."

* * *

**I—PILOT **

These words were social suicide. I felt something churn in my stomach, and I deemed it as second hand embarrassment for the new girl. It wasn`t that it was just a frivolous thing to say, but it was so …unexpected. Why couldn`t she have said something that would at least allow her to blend in, if only a little?  
She sat herself back down, maintaining perfect posture. She appeared confident in her words, and stood by them as everyone remained in the awkward silence, absorbing what had just happened.

"That`s… very nice, Tsu-Chan. Next?"

I spent the rest of the period trying to get a read from her. There was nothing, no energy being emitted. I could feel the familiar energies of the students I had spent the past year with, but nothing new.

"Harue-chan said she got a good look at her in homeroom. She said the girl doesn`t have any pores!"

"Wonder what her skin regimen consists of…"

"She doesn`t have one! She told Harue that she doesn`t wear any makeup, either."

"What a bunch of bull…"

The two girls making the exchange were silent as Mari made her way back to her seat in the front of the classroom. Lunch was almost over, and more students were heading back to their seats. I watched them stare at her without any regard for good manners. Mother had always told me that staring was rude, especially when you were staring at someone because they did not look the same as everyone else.  
This would be more believable had the girl`s complexion not been completely flawless, with a peach flush upon the apples of her cheeks. I had yet to see her blink. Perhaps she had been wearing contacts? Still, would she not have to blink to keep them from falling out of her eyes?  
It took me a while to notice that the girl`s chest did not rise and fall like the other students. After watching her closely throughout the period, I learned that this girl was not breathing, blinking or giving off any energy whatsoever.  
But it seemed impossible for her to be a demon.

By the end of the week, Mari was still being tortured on a daily basis for her odd behavior and appearance. Though she did not fight when beleaguered with insults, she still managed to draw attention to herself.  
She was abnormally fit for as frail as she looked, and appeared to have a …photographic memory. When asked to read aloud in class, the girl had surprised everyone by setting her book down and reciting the poem in it`s entirety.

"She`s starting to make Minamino look normal," One of my peers whispered from behind me, causing me to chuckle as well as the few students sitting around us.

"I heard her father was a worker in the abandoned factory…"

The doll factory on the outskirts of town. I watched as Mari highlighted sections in her book, moving mechanically, in sync with the other few students that sat in the front row.

"He burned to death."

With the girl`s acute hearing, turned her head and looked back at us, silencing those still exchanging snarky comments.

"Jeeze, those eyes are creepin' me out." The boy who had made the joke earlier ground out behind frightened, clenched teeth. I only stared back at the amber eyes blankly, waiting for her to face forward again. She did not frighten me, though she had piqued my interest.

"She`s just a girl." I pointed out to my classmate, who had paled at Mari`s daunting stare.

"She`s somethin', alright," Another said. Mari`s eyes moved to mine, questioning me, jaw shifting to the side as she slid her teeth into a set position. She looked like she knew something we all didn`t know. Maybe she had secrets, valuable information.  
Or maybe she was just a girl.  
She finally turned back to the front of the room, allowing me to view the blunt wedge of faded pink strands resting on the back of her neck. I had yet to see her roots.  
…The Doll Factory, I was familiar with it. I watched through the windows as clouds gathered closer together outside, forming some more of the grey, overcast weather we`d had all week so far.

"She is a little strange, but," Kitajima Maya, who was seated to my left, stared along with the rest of our classmates,

"Everyone`s giving her a really hard time." Her sympathetic tone was what pushed me over the edge, allowing the thick, sarcastic words to spill out,

"Maybe you should offer to fix her hair." I suggested, and received a displeased look from the young girl.

"You`re better than that, Minamino-kun. Shame on you." I felt my stomach muscles tighten as Kitajima looked at me as if I were in my true form. I found myself wilted under the disappointed look she was giving me. I had been put on a pedestal in the girl`s eyes. She did not think me to be as cold and cruel as I occasionally let on. Shame on her for letting her delude herself into believing I was a gentleman. Shame on anyone for believing that I was to be trifled with, really.

"We should ask her to join student council." She offered, and I didn`t respond. I didn`t mind Kitajima`s suggestion, as it didn`t affect me either way.

"Minamino-kun?"

"Huh?" I looked over to Maya once more, to find her looking at me curiously,

"Will you ask her to join student council?"

I felt my lips press together in a firm line, causing the girl to look at me with intimidated, round eyes. I faltered under her fright, releasing the breath I`d been holding in,  
"I will." I assured her. She let out a breath of relief as well before smiling genuinely. I turned my attention back to the front of the classroom to watch Mari continued to sit, pin straight as she absorbed the lecture.  
Even in the rainstorm, her posture remained without flaw. I watched from under the umbrella my mother had placed in my bag the night before as Mari casually strolled along the walk before me, allowing herself to be drenched in the rain. I wondered if she was concerned about catching a cold, or if anyone was concerned about her for that matter. She seemed neat, and had no bodily odor to speak of. I had never really gotten close, but I was assured that if she did have bad cleansing habits, someone would have brought it to our classmate`s attention, along with the other remarks made about her.  
I didn`t really want to initiate conversation with the girl in the rain, so I stayed behind to observe all of her odd impracticalities from a distance. I had been entertaining the idea that Mari wasn`t human, though in reality she could have been a number of things. She could have been an apparition, a demon that could suppress its energy. She could have been human with very little reiki, and I was just ignorant to sensing it. Though the girl had yet to cause any harm on either category, my final, and slightly off putting conclusion for her lack of energy was that she was a pilot for the Reikai, a seal of protection hiding her ki so that she could safely watch me for Yama himself.  
If the first, I would not harm the girl. If the second, I would ensure that she remove herself form my territory. As for the third, well, I would have to prepare for the worst, run away, maybe. Mother would be devastated.  
The tension grew between us as I followed her farther out to the town`s limits. I kept a note that we were growing closer to that same, abandoned factory that our peers had been whispering about earlier. Only, we never passed it. Mari had picked a particular path as if to purposefully avoid passing it, and I found myself closing the umbrella and following on an off road route, the damp earth muffling the sound of my footsteps as I followed the girl.  
Maybe it was all true about her father, maybe she was an ordinary human girl. She halted outside of a gate, a large house was at the end of a long walk on the other side, surrounded by grass that had grown to seed and vines snaking their way up the walls of the tradition-styled home. Her house, I presumed.

"I know you`re out there." I had frozen when she`d spoken up in a deeper register than when she had recited the _The Sailor_ during our third period literature class. I did not make a sound from where I stood, slightly off the path, waiting to see if the girl would take action. I slipped a leaf between my middle and index finger, ready for a fight if need be.

"Come out, _Hedoki_,"

_Hedoki_?

Mari turned from the wooden gate and stared into the greenery off in the opposite direction that I had been shadowing her from. I pressed myself against the wood of the momiji, waiting to see her next move. Certainly she had not referred to me as the _vomit-demon_.  
The wind picked up and then I knew what she had been referring to. I caught his aura, carried on the scent of stomach acid, enough to force my own nose to twitch. Out from behind the trees and the bamboo came a demon with large teeth, and horns atop his head, dripping in vomit, thus earning his title.

"Hello, little girl," The vomit demon rasped out, and I looked on as Mari Tsu had still yet to blink since the first time I`d laid eyes on her.

"State your business," Her voice remained monotonous, as if it was difficult for her to project emotion. I had noticed this when she had recited to the class as well. Even when faced with an apparition, she displayed little to no emotion. Though, I had detected irritation flexing on her brow as the vomit demon drew closer to her.

"My business is not with you," The demon replied, "it is with Youko Kurama."

I drew in a sharp breath when I heard him drawling out my name in amusement, as if he knew he had thrown me under the bus.

"Kurama?" Mari turned, eyes meeting mine through the brush of bamboo and trees. I couldn`t believe that I had been found so easily, and after all that effort to maintain a stealthy, cutthroat reputation.

"I think he means you, Minamino-kun."

I shuffled out from behind the tree, brushing myself off as I stepped onto the same broken, stone path Hedoki and Mari Tsu were standing on.

"Tsu-chan," I greeted, her eyes looking less dangerous as they met with mine. I was not the enemy, though she had known that I had been stalking her. The demon cackled at my arrival. He was thrown by my appearance, not having expected the infamous Kurama to be a school boy.

"This half-sized human is the Youko Kurama? Certainly not," He doubted, and Mari also observed my appearance from head to toe, as if she could not believe it herself, even with her blank stare. I allowed my ki force its way into the veins of the shred of green, letting it extend out into a blade.

"I see I underestimated you," Hedoki grinned, satisfied to know that I was not quite the underling he had expected.

"I have been looking for you," He informed me, taking a step in my direction. Mari was watching, calculating his every movement with her bionic-looking eyes like a cat does when it notices movement.

"I want you to join me, create a pact to force this town under our jurisdiction."

"That`s out of the question," I answered quickly, thinking of nothing but my human mother, who was getting off of her shift at work by then and on her way home. She would be wondering where I`d gone to for so long in the downpour.  
Hedoki stared incredulously at me. I wouldn`t be his partner, regardless of his plans. His sloppiness in concealment and his odor would throw us on any task we would need to complete. I good partner required speed, strength and stealth, and judging by his inhuman appearance, he was none of the aforementioned.

"Then you will die!" Hedoiki rasped, lurching towards me, opening his mouth as wide as possible to allow bullets of acid rain to project at me. Too many to dodge, to many to block. I braced myself, pulling my arms before my face instinctively.  
But the acid did not strike me or burn away my flesh as I`d expected it to. I drew back the arms shielding myself to see Mari`s face, eyes wide and staring forward as if her soul had slipped out for tea.

"Tsu," I ground out, shoving her to the side, turning her to see the acid that had burned holes in the back of her uniform, flesh peeling back beneath the layers of material.  
I looked past the girl, but found Hedoki no where in sight. It was only when I heard a rasped whimper that I noticed the scraps of his scattered body among the ground. He had been sliced into pieces.

"That is not a human girl…" He said, staring up at the both of us. He began inching away, into the greenery towering around us. I stepped before him, now a full five feet above the stump that was half is chest to the tips of his horns.

"It would be wise to never show your face in this town again." I growled down to him, and he scampered away, launching himself into the forest and far from my senses within moments.  
I noticed the air smelled like something else besides charred human flesh, but I could not place the smell. I stepped close, watching the girl as she knelt, catatonic. Something on her forearm glinted, and I noticed the sleeves of her uniform had been sliced open by the blades attached to her limbs.

"Take me inside," She ordered, and I obliged. It was the least I could have done after the girl had saved me from the explanation my mother would be demanding later about why my uniform had several holes in it and a half-melted face.  
I reached down to pick the girl up, attempting to pull her arm around by neck. I took one look at the razor protruding from her arm before thinking against it.

"Keep your arms tucked in," I reached down to cradle her back against one arm and slip the other under her knees, lifting her from the kneeling position. I watched her grimace a little as the pressure was put on her back.

The Tsu household wasn`t at all what I`d expected it to be like. When I slid the door open, I saw that the first room was covered in dust. White sheets were placed over all of the furniture and scattered around the floor were…  
Body parts?  
I nudged at what looked like an extremely detailed-looking prosthetic arm with my foot, watching as the fingers flexed open gently, and then curled back to the resting position. They were not ordinary prosthetics.

"You live here," I stated, but it sounded more like a question than an observation.

Mari did not answer, her face remaining the same as it had when she was kneeling outside on the walk.  
I set the girl down on one of the covered armchairs, and watched as she sunk lifelessly into it, as if she were a ragdoll. The razors on her arms that had ripped through her uniform had disappeared somehow, but the slashes in the sleeves of the indigo sweater were there as proof.

"You aren`t human," I lifted my eyes back to her face, which still had not changed. Her severe colored eyes almost glowing in the poorly lit room. She did not respond.

"But you aren`t a demon," I continued, stepping back from the girl, looking around the room. I heard the words of our classmates ringing through my ears,

"_She doesn`t have any pores."_

_"She told Harue that she doesn`t wear any makeup, either."_

I leaned in, focusing on her face. It was true, she had no pores, only smooth, technically perfect skin. The flush on her cheeks looked as if it was painted on, along with the color on her lips. No human, nor demon girl was naturally this perfect. She stared up at me with her glossy, amber eyes from beneath thick, black lashes.  
And then it clicked,

"Mari, are you ….a doll?"

"Are you a demon, Minamino-kun?" She asked in return, and my jaw tightened. She knew my secret, and I knew hers. An even exchange.

"Was there a reason you followed me?" She asked next, not having expected me to answer her previous question. I stood there, remembering why I had ventured out on the excursion in the first place. Of course now, it all seemed so trivial in the scheme of things.  
Followed her in a rainstorm for three miles into the country with only Kitajima`s request as an excuse. I unhinged my jaw, almost feeling embarrassed as the words drawled out,

"You`ve been invited to become a member of the student council."

* * *

**I would like to personally thank my main scoop** _owlloveyou_** for helping inspire me to write this and coming up with most of the sue-licious ideas that are to come. That`s right people, you heard it here first so if you have a problem with the above please see her inbox. **

**-Holly**


	2. II

I was born weak, to a dying mother and a father with nothing but hatred for me in his heart. I had been cut from the womb, forced into my mother`s arms as she took her last breaths. She lived long enough to see my imperfections, just long enough to stare in horror at my tiny, deformed body in her arms.

I had been born without legs.

My father`s disdain for me was strong, but his hatred for the factory was even stronger. Surprisingly, my father had never blamed my mother`s death on me. She had been feeling under the weather since she`d started her job at the doll factory. Mother had spent her days breathing in the fumes from the vinyl that the dolls were made out of. She had asked for a different position, something where she wasn`t exposed to the raw, heated liquids that were poured into the molds. I could hear my father stewing over that for the first four years of my life. I remembered always crying, able to sense his turmoil before I knew what it was about.

And our surnames weren`t originally Tsu. It`s original form had been Tsuchiya, but that name had been stripped from me, alone with my human body. I did not deserve to keep my Father`s name.

Not after how I had soiled it.

* * *

**II— vi ny le**

* * *

I watched him working on the dolls from my bedroom. He would work late into the night, cursing and occasionally throwing doll parts, shattering items in our home, shattering pieces of dolls. I`d grown to accept his noisemaking as my lullabies, drifting to sleep to the sound of my father, determined to create a perfect doll without harmless chemicals. Every time he tried to form the dolls from something natural, they turned out to be extremely fragile. Glass, porcelain, nothing that was durable enough for children to play with.

He let me keep the dolls that didn`t make the cut. They came to me, broken and without clothes or hair. I remember being excited to receive a doll with glass eyes. She wasn`t the prettiest doll, but she`d had eyes and that was all that mattered to me. I named her after myself. Whenever my father got angry with me, I would take my anger out on that doll. Her face wasn`t symmetrical, and I remember thinking her ugly at times. Sometimes I would cry because I felt like I was ugly too, because I named the doll 'Mari'. I used to lay in bed at night under the covers and tell Mari that she needed to be pretty. She never changed, though. I used to be genuinely upset over the fact that no matter how hard I prayed for her to be perfect, she was only going to stay the same.

One day my father brought a man into the house to help him with making a durable doll out of nontoxic chemicals. They did not go about making the dolls the way my father was used to. Most of the time they sat around and talked. Whenever the man would leave, he would pat me on the head as he passed by while I played with my dolls.

One day the man got into an argument with my father. He had brought in a very large, life-sized doll. She was beautiful, with glass eyes and hair the color of cherry blossoms. She was everything that my father had wanted. She was durable, made from harmless materials, but something the man had told my father about the doll had upset him, and my father asked him to leave.

On his way out, the strange man didn`t pat me on the head. He stopped and spoke to me, for the first time in weeks.

"What`s your doll`s name?" He asked, smiling down at me. I was fooled by his innocent demeanor. I opened up, explained how the doll was named after myself and that she was only a few months old. He chuckled darkly, taking Mari from my hands and holding her in the air above my head, while proceeding to rip my doll`s legs off. I stared, unable to understand why someone would want to do that to my doll. My father didn`t comfort me after the man had left. I cried myself out and then he replaced my doll with another one, one without the eyes. Her face was symmetrical, but she wasn`t the same.

My father threw himself into his work harder after the argument, working endlessly. The doll that the man had brought over sat in the corner of the living room. I was afraid to play with her out of fear that my father would be angry. I noticed that the dolls father had been making resembled that specific doll; but they all crumbled when they could not be made from vinyl. What was the material this doll had been made out of?

One day when my father had stepped out, I dared to touch the doll. Her skin was soft, like human skin, but it was too perfect to be. She didn`t smell like the vinyl dolls had. She had no scent. Her yellow eyes stared blankly as she slumped against the wall. I dared to brush my fingertips over her lips, feeling the smooth skin that belonged to them. Her hair, her eyelashes, all seemed to be very real. I couldn`t understand what Father had been so upset about.

Not that any of that mattered for much longer. It turned out that what the man had been speaking to my father about was about had come to light, specifically for me. You see, one night my father came into my room and made me drink something. I remembered it tasting bitter, like chemicals. I didn`t question him. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that he was poisoning me. It wasn`t like I could run. I spent the hour afterwards screaming in pain as I felt my blood burning in my veins. My skin began to feel like it was too tight, as if the pores all over my body were closing shut, refusing to let me sweat out the fever that was possessing me. I felt like I was falling out of my own skin then, as if I was separated from my body.

I found myself staring into a bright light, with my eyes open wide. I was laying on a table, feeling incredibly stiff.

"It worked," I could hear my father rasping somewhere in the room, and I was wondering what he was talking about. The light was moved from above me, and the room came into focus as I looked up him. There were tears brimming, threatening to fall. I`d never seen him look that way before. I wouldn`t say that he looked sad, but more… happy, proud. He was crying out of joy. Over me.

But what had become of me?

And then it hit me—I could feel my legs, more specifically, I could wiggle my toes. I looked down to see my perfect, shiny, hairless legs and my dainty feet attached. The real deal.

I strained to pull myself up, feeling extremely heavy for the light figure I had received. My father helped me off the stretcher. When he lifted me, it seemed as if I was weightless, light and innocent as a feather. I stretched out my arms to wrap them around his neck, the first time I`d ever attempted to hold my father like that, and, unfortunately, the last time.

I noticed something on my arms catch the light as they moved, but I was too emotional to noticed until the blade on the insides of my arms sliced clear through my father`s neck. I had beheaded him before I could even enjoy his embrace. I fell with him to the floor, listening to the lifeless thudding of both of our bodies hitting the finished wood as I was soaked in his blood.

I had become a monster, stronger than I had ever imagined that I could be. I never wanted to hurt anyone, especially my father. We may have had a detached relationship, with little affection, but he was still my father. We had grown to care for each other in our own, strange and silent ways. He had given me this body so that I could be strong. He wanted the best for me. He wanted the best for my mother. Though I was free to move and go wherever I pleased, I felt chained to that place, not by my leaden feet but by the emotions buried in my new, still, doll heart.

My sorrow was channeled into hatred almost immediately. Looking back, I figured that these were also early signs of a glitch somewhere inside of my new form. You see, I didn`t go through the grieving process in the same way other do. What I mean by grieving, as in, victims of rape or those who have lost loved ones, it`s impossible to just bat an eye at these situations. You are supposed to go through complex stages of denial, guilt, anger for long periods of time… But that was exactly what I did, I blinked-once, maybe twice, before heading out to harness control over my new body, and find the strange man that had interrupted my previous life.

Of course, the revenge wouldn`t be complete unless I destroyed the place that had killed my mother as well. My father had spent so much time trying to find a solution for the damned fumes, and he never lived to complete the task.

So, I started a fire in the supply room, downstairs in the warehouse. It had gone ignored as the workers were all on the levels above me. I stayed long enough to watch it begin to ravage the entire basement, staying with my father as long as I could as I cremated his body.

This is among the few regrets I have in my life. I made so many suffer from burning the factory, so many families lost loved ones. At the time, I didn`t think about them. I thought about myself. Maybe I gained a cold, doll`s conscience along with my new plastic heart. I could feel physical pain but feeling emotions were another thing entirely.

That`s why I wanted to fall in love. Not the superficial love that is seen only in movies, the kind that doesn`t really exist in real life. The kind of love that I feel for friends, family, things I enjoy. I wanted to feel a connection to anything, anyone. To feel anything would be enough.

Shortly after I had been on my own, I met someone that I could confidently say I loved, or felt something similar to love for. It was the year nineteen ninety one, few months before I was enrolled in my first-and final year of public Junior High. The girl was only fifteen, two years older than I, but mature beyond her years. She understood what I was going through before I could even confide in her what had happened. She accepted me without judgment, took me under her wing.

Unbiased and nonchalant, her name was Shizuru Kuwabara.

* * *

**Enter Shizuru**

* * *

I stepped out onto the small balcony outside my parents bedroom, into the early evening air. It was late August, and the mugginess was beginning to finally ebb away, allowing the evenings to cool off without too much humidity. Perfect weather for watching the sunset.

I flipped the lighter open, holding it to the end of the cigarette dangling from my lips. I froze upon hearing an unfamiliar cry. It echoed in my right ear and through to the left, sending a cold shiver down my spine. The sound of agony, a child crying out somewhere near by.

But the child was not an infant, nor was she crying out loud. This sound of pain was coming straight from the soul.

I looked down onto the street below, and off into the distance. This was no new occurrence for me, as my spiritual awareness had been …acting up, ever since the fire a few months back. The lost souls of the workers that had burned to death had been making appearances over the past month, trying to attach themselves to me when they realized that I could see them and relay messages to their loved ones.

The cries stopped, and I lit the cigarette, snapping the lighter shut and placing it on the railing as I looked out onto my city. The streets seemed empty, no one was wandering in search of a medium yet. Dinner was setting on the stove in the kitchen downstairs, and Kazuma was supposed to be home soon. He knew how miffed I could get when it came to him missing the crappy dinners I prepared. Tardiness was no excuse, but I did hope that whatever trouble he`d "run" into on the way home wasn`t disgracing the Kuwabara name. Unless it was Urameshi; I didn`t expect him to ever land a victory off of that boy. They`d been at it since they started grade school.

Speaking of grade school, I`d told him that if he`d gotten his grades up by his final year of Junior High that I would get him a kitten. It was fast approaching. He would be in seventh grade in April. I needed to find out where I could get a cat on the sneak without making an enormous dent in mom and dad`s bank account. The boy was nuts about kittens, and we had always been firm believers in keeping out promises.

I leaned over the railing a little to look into my baby brother`s room, checking to see if he`d left the light on again. That boy was always leaving things out of place, and he didn`t need to be running up another unnecessary charge on our parent`s bill. They already spent most of their lives working just so that I could prepare some food for the two of us. It was dark, reflecting the light coming from the outside instead of illuminating the room itself.

Below his window, I caught sight of a figure standing in the bushes. I hadn`t sensed her whereabouts at all, and for that reason I had been intimidated. She looked so determined to be there, as if she had purposely tried to frighten me. I assumed that she was an apparition, that is, until I looked into her eyes. I could hear the cries of desperation echoing through my head again as I looked down into her amber eyes. Her presence felt solid once I`d kept my eyes on hers for a few moments of silence.

"You`re a little different than the others," I observed, speaking down to her as I exhaled a cloud of smoke. She did not blink or change her expression in the acknowledgment of my words. Perhaps she was deaf, or maybe illiterate?  
"You are alive, aren`t you?" I asked, "I can tell that you have more of a presence when I`m focusing."

I noticed the dark stains splattered all over her sundress. She looked as if she had drenched herself in blood and ash. Her hair was matted to her face, and appeared an unnatural deep magenta as the sun continued to set outside. I had half the mind to invite her inside, seeing that Mom and Dad were away. I looked back through the sliding glass door, as if to silently as for their approval. Whoever this being was, she seemed to be desperate. More importantly, she was real. This was different than meeting apparitions on the street.

"Hey, meet me around there," I ordered down to her, gesturing for her to round the corner of the house to where the entrance was. She stared at me with her blank eyes, and I hesitantly put the cigarette out before heading inside through

the sliding doors.

My heart stopped short upon opening the front door to see those same yellow eyes staring up at me from behind the opening. I bit back the yelp as I couldn`t help but narrow my eyes down at the girl. I stepped aside, inviting her in. She didn`t take long to make up her mind, stepping in before I could finish the line I`d used to ask her to come inside. I noticed that there were no shoes on her feet, and she smelled of smoke and something else that I couldn`t …place. Whatever it was, it reeked. I wondered if it would be considered rude to immediately offer a chance to bathe. Instead, I swallowed the temptation.

"Would you like something to eat?" I asked, trying not to be impolite as I tried to resist scrunching my nose up. She stepped inside, and I lead her into the kitchen. Kazuma was going to have to eat leftovers or something in the fridge, because he`d missed his chance with the meal I`d planned. I dished up the rice and vegetables for my guest, setting her plate on the table in front of her.

"There you go, kid," I slumped into the chair across from her, running a hand through my hair. I wished that I`d gotten the chance to at least finish half of my cigarette. I could feel the cravings nipping at me, causing my muscles to restrict themselves in an unnaturally tight way.

I watched as she picked up the chopsticks and stared down at the plate. I felt kind of sorry for her. After everything she could have possibly been through, she now had to eat my cooking. It wasn`t that bad. Everything had been cooked clean through. So maybe I had a tendency to overcook the chicken. She could drown it in sauce to make up for how dry it was, right?

"I`ll admit, it isn`t the best. Poultry isn`t my forte."

She looked up at me from her seat, her calculating eyes questioning whether I was going to become upset if she didn`t want to eat. If she wasn`t hungry for it, Kazuma would wolf it down in mere seconds. I almost giggled at the thought of him swooping in to take the plate from her.

She made a decision, picking up the chopsticks that I`d laid over her plate. She didn`t take her eyes off of me as she lifted the first bite to her mouth, chewing mechanically on the dry chicken as if it were a synchronized routine. She swallowed, chasing it with a sip of ice water. I was reassured that my cooking was good enough.

"You look like you could use a little care," I told her, not really thinking before opening my mouth. I cursed myself inwardly as she looked at me, a little put off by my words. She seemed frightened now, our roles being reversed. I needed to learn when to keep my big mouth shut. Even Kazu was picking up my bad habit of being blunt when speaking to other people.

Oh, well, at least we were honest.

She opened her mouth, and I awaited a reply to my rudeness. Maybe she would excuse herself and leave. A part of me didn`t want that. I couldn`t understand my feelings, but I wanted her to stay and sit with me for a little while. Maybe it was just loneliness. Had I been lonely? I`d always thought myself to be content with my routine. After all, I had mom, dad, and Kazu. I didn`t need to feel lonely. Still, somehow I enjoyed the company of another. I watched her take another bite of the food I`d made instead, chewing in her synchronized manner before swallowing. She repeated her step of taking a sip from the glass before staring a little while longer.

"Your hair is, … nice." I abandoned my concerns for propriety as I spoke again, staring at the matted strands of dull pink.

"You can use the shower. You look like you could use some clean clothes."

She took another bite, not looking away from me. I wondered if she was going to blink any time in the near future. I watched her chew for her usual twenty counts before swallowing. As she reached for the glass a third time, she stopped. Her head snapped in the direction of the doorway, and she pushed herself from the table quickly. I watched her entire body tense as she stood, glaring at the doorway leading to the living room.

I heard Kazuma come in as I watched the girl standing guard. She could sense him before he`d even opened the door to our home.

"Sorry I`m late, sis," He called out, shutting the front door behind him. I could hear the shuffling of him taking his shoes off and slipping into the house slippers by the door. I looked back to the girl, her body relaxing as she looked back to me for approval of the newcomer. I felt the corner of my mouth twitch upwards, and I allowed myself to give into a satisfied sort of smile.

"Don`t be. I gave your dinner to someone else anyway," I called back. The girl watched me carefully as I looked approvingly up at her. She slowly seated herself once more as Kazuma appeared in the doorway to the dining room.

"I didn`t know you had friends," He grumbled, a little put out that I`d offered up his food so easily. Though the statement seemed to be insensitive, I knew he did not mean it. This had been the first time I`d let guests in the house. I hadn`t had many friends since I`d dropped out of high school.

"She`s going to take a shower when she`s done, so don`t hog the bathroom, okay?" I asked as he shoved his head into the refrigerator, staring into it as if it lead to another world. It didn`t matter whether or not we had anything to eat, it was still necessary for him to stare into it like an abyss, letting all of the cold air out,  
"I don`t hog the bathroom. You`re the only one that does that." He retorted, waist deep inside the icebox as he rummaged.

"I mean, find another place to read your comics after you finish clearing out the pantry, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah,"

I looked back to the girl, who placed another bite in her mouth upon seeing that my attention was focused back to her. She chewed, twenty times before swallowing. She reached for the glass again.

"So what do you go by, anyway?" I leaned across the table, resting my head in my hand as I watched her eat in perfect rhythm. She swallowed the sip of water before opening her mouth again.

"You`re tellin' me you just let her have my food and you`ve never met?!" Baby brother nearly banged his head off the shelf in the fridge during his dramatic reaction, but I ignored him.

"Mari," She introduced herself, before taking another bite of food, chewing faster as if to make up for the delayed timing in her eating routine.

"I`m Shizuru," I leaned back in the chair to look at my brother while he continued to graze, "The oaf is my brother, Kazuma. He`s harmless."

There was a scoff form the fridge, but nothing as said.

"Do you live around here?"

She set her chopsticks down, looking between Kazuma`s rear and I before speaking again. I hadn`t expected her answer to be as frank as it was.

"I ran away."

The refrigerator door swung shut, and Kazuma seated himself at the table with the two of us, a bowl of leftover noodles with beef in hand. He dug into the unheated meal, not really caring about the content as long as it would fill the massive black hole that was his stomach.  
"She`s not staying in my room, if that`s what you`re thinking," No other human could possibly have understood his words with a mouthful of food, but I had been trained in his language and knew all of the incomprehensive slurs and syllables.

"Well, that`s settled then, did you hear?" I turned back to Mari,

"Kazuma said you can stay in his room."

"Aw, jeez,"


	3. III

Shizuru

* * *

My ears perked at the sound of the front door clicking shut behind the girl, who was several hours late arriving home from her Junior High in the next town over. Mari had been living with us for nearly a year, and our parents had only approved of taking her in if she were to be enrolled in public school.

I would be lying if I said that I was alright with the idea of paying for Mari to go to school. She was strange, quiet. She was bound to clash with her peers on various levels, not only that, but she had been placed in a separate school from Kazuma. I knew that with his protection most wouldn`t dare bother her, but she was unfamiliar with everyone else on the other side of town. It was certain that no one would be looking out for her.

"You missed dinner." I informed her, shifting my weight on the sofa in front of the television, Kazuma sat on the floor playing some street fighting game, hammering away at the controller with his thumbs.

"Don`t worry, Mari, it wasn`t nothin' but crap anyway." He grumbled, earning himself a rather stiff decorator pillow to the back of his puffy, orange head.

"That`s the last time I feed your ungrateful ass." I replied, resting my head back against my hand as I stretched out on the sofa,

"Mari, come here and tell me about your day at school."

I waited for the girl to round the sofa and step into the living room, but there was no movement made, no noise. After too long of a moment passed, I sat up, looking over my shoulder to see the girl standing there, looking like she`d been attacked by a pack of dogs on her way back from school.

My initial thought was that she had been bullied, and I felt a rolling boil overflowing my thoughts fueled by the fire from the burners beneath, feeling my stomach muscles tighten.

"Who did that to you?!" I asked, as I climbed off the sofa, flipping the overhead lights on to get a better view of the girl. I grabbed her roughly by her shoulders, inspecting her thoroughly. My eyes scanned over the rips in the brand new uniform we ha just bought her. They were larger on her back, though the skin underneath did not seem to be harmed.

But these were not merely tears, but more like chemical burns.

"Mari how did this happen?" I spun her back to face me. She looked up at me with her calm, calculated expression as if she had experienced an average day.

"I fell." Was her reply, to which I lifted my eyes to the ceiling, praying that I had the patience to handle this without losing my temper.

"Hey, are those punks from Arakawa givin' you trouble?" Kazuma was at my side, having left his video game to check on our newest family member,

"I`ll hunt those jerks down right now! Just say the word! I`ll teach those punks not to mess with the Kuwabara`s."

"Cool it, carrot top," I barked over my shoulder at him, trying to compose myself as best that I could. I leaned down, at eye level with the peculiar girl,

"I know that isn`t true, Mari. You don`t have to be scared, we can change schools if we have to."

"I don`t want to change schools." Mari gave me the default smile she usualyl wore, as if it were some sort of cop out to convince us that she was content with what had clearly gone so wrong.

"I was invited to join student council."

"Hey, really?!" Kazuma jumped from angry to ecstatic in an instant,  
"That`s great! Right sis?" He looked to me, and all I could do was glare disapprovingly at him for going along with the subject change.

"I don`t think student council is a good idea, Mari," I stated matter-of-factly, "I don`t think you should draw more attention to yourself if this is how it`s going to be. I really wish you would just have us switch you to Sarayashiki."

"She wouldn`t be any safer there," Kazuma grumbled,

"Not with that punk Urameshi around."

"Well, you`re going to have to toughen up and kick Urameshi`s ass, then, aren`t you?!" I shouted, pulling him down by the collar of his shirt to scold him for trying to convince Mari otherwise,

"You had better not be soiling the Kuwabara family name losing to that punk all the time!"

I knew that he would be able to look out for her just fine. Kazuma was one tough kid, and all Mari needed was one person looking out for her.

"Slow your roll, there,"

I turned back to the girl as she turned away from us to head up the stairs to our shared bedroom. She had been sleeping in my room with me since she`d arrived.

"Mari, I`m serious about this," I looked up at her as she paused obediently on the stair, one foot still lifted from the step as she had been mid-stride when she`d stopped to look at me.

"Don`t join the council, okay? You don`t know that they weren`t just trying to lure you into a trap. Just come straight home after school from now on, okay?"

Mari nodded once, which was all that had been needed.

Mari had always kept her word—always.

* * *

III— al li è

* * *

My father and his friend had always described this doll body as perfect, flawless. I supposed that it was safe to say that he wanted me to be that. That was why he`d done it. He couldn`t accept me the way that I was. I had accepted this, finally, after lying awake many sleepless nights watching Shizuru sleeping peacefully at my side.

"I can`t stress this enough, Mari," She`d told me before turning onto her side, her back to me in the dark room,

"Don`t let anyone take advantage of you."

I couldn`t tell Shizuru about Hedoki.

It wasn`t that I felt uncomfortable about telling her about my body. I wanted to evade conversation because I was afraid of them trying to pry for more information, wanting to know every aspect of my life.

How could I tell them that I had burned down the doll factory with the workers still inside? I was far too comfortable with them now to be on my own again. I enjoyed their company, maybe even loved them. I hadn`t loved anyone

I was down to one school uniform after my run in with the vomit demon and Minamino Shuichi. Shizuru said that she would have to ask her parents if she could order a new one for me, but I was slightly embarrassed. Their family had taken me in without much hesitation. They were a very laid back group, something I had never experienced with my father. We weren`t permitted to wear our uniforms on Saturday, but I didn`t have much clothing to choose from. Not that I hadn`t been offered clothes, I just hated that Shizuru had taken pieces of her own wardrobe for me to wear, hemming them and taking them in so that they were tailored to me. I felt guilty whenever I wore something she had spent hours working on. As I dressed myself that morning, I wondered if she had any anxiety about whether or not I would ruin the outfit she had touched up for me specifically. I would have to be careful not to mar the clothing in any way.

I felt like I had to prove myself all over again, and the lump was sore in my throat, impossible to swallow.

I then thought about Kazuma as I sat at my desk in homeroom. I was a little over an hour early to school that day, as he had volunteered to escort me though his junior high was on the opposite side of town. I knew that he would be late for his Saturday activities as well, seeing that it was impossible to get across town in that determined time frame. He wouldn`t waste his money on a train ticket, either. He`d been saving up for a new video game.

I mused over getting a job, helping pay some of the bills. Of course, I would have to get permission from the office. I`d be approved for work-study, seeing that I made the grades and had never caused trouble that the staff was aware of. I had been helping out with the chores and tutoring Kazuma, but the fact that I had been allowed to stay with them without any fee left a bad taste in my mouth.

Another thing that didn`t sit well with me was physically embodied in that of Minamino Shuichi, seated in the row to my left and three desks back. I could sense his leering energy as soon as he had set foot on campus.

He reminded me of that man my father had brought into the house. Both had a looming sense about them, but Minamino`s had more presence, as if there was a spotlight shining down on him. He radiated, and I could feel the energy coming off of him like beams of sunlight.

A demon, he`d explained that I was able-programmed to read his energy. That was how I`d known Hedoki was near. Only when I had locked the vomit demon as my target did Minamino`s energy appear on my radar.

It had been fleeting at first, but once Hedoki had threatened the boy I felt the surge of electricity. My initial instinct was to attack both targets, but I managed to control the reflex I had developed with this new body and defended him, damaging my own exterior in the process.

"Did you feel the attack?" He`d asked me as we sat in the abandoned house, seated on the dusty floor, among scattered pieces of my father`s work.

I nodded my head from one side to the next, awaiting his departure patiently so that I could return to the Kuwabara household. I`d felt that I was being followed by an entity, and hadn`t wanted to lead it to my new haven.

"No, not really," I answered briefly, avoiding going into detail of how my body responded to the sense of touch.

I could not feel chemical burns, regardless of how acidic the vomit had been. I`d felt the drops beat against my back, heard the sizzling of the acid burning through my uniform and forming droplet sized welts on my back. There was a faint heat that flared along the exterior, but I was numb underneath it. I could feel things, solid blows with fists or blunt weapons, a touch or a pat on the back from my new siblings. Unfortunately my new genetic makeup was not as advanced to feel the pain of a burning sensation, to which I was grateful for given the previous circumstances.

"I won`t tell our classmates about your secret, seeing that most of them wouldn`t believe me anyway."

"Likewise," No one would listen to what I had to say regardless of what came out of my mouth. If anything it would only give more reason for our peers to hurl more insults at me. Not that any of them truly hurt my feelings. Better to be made fun of for being aesthetically perfect than for being a handicap. At least that way their words wouldn`t cut me on a personal level.

"I can`t speak for the rest of the student body, but neither Kitajima nor I invited you onto the council under false pretense. I do consider you an ally now."

An ally. As if this were some form of alliance.

"I have no interest in an alliance." I spoke without thinking of offending him, my concern for the Kuwabara family in the front of my mind. As soon as Hedoki had mentioned the phrase _Youko Kurama_ my brain had immediately started searching for information, and what it had found was not pretty. It hadn`t registered in my brain that he was a different entity completely, only showed pieces of his most infamous crimes. A thief, a murderer, a traitor.

This boy was capable of horrible things, and I had no room left in my life for more traumatic experiences,

"I want nothing to do with your kind."

Something crossed his features at these words, not anger or annoyance. It seemed more understanding than anything.

"I can see why you would be concerned, but I am not anywhere near the threat I once was."

"It makes no difference, the potential is still there." My eyes darted around the room, growing dim as the sun was beginning to set."

"You are every bit as dangerous as I am at this stage." His eyes narrowed as if he`d just realized something that was bothering him,

"For someone that had no knowledge of that until moments ago, you seem to be rather intimidated. I don`t think I need to remind you that you appear to be capable of defending yourself. Or do you know something that I don`t know?"

Put off now, I delivered the only response that I could think of on the spot without trying to reason or calm the irritation that had arisen within me at his words. Irritated because he had caught on to me, and now thought he knew every aspect of how my mind was working,

"Yes, and I have every right to keep it to myself."

His mouth pressed into a thin line, clearly unsatisfied with the reply,

"Of course." He turned his back to me, stepping carefully around the dolls as I sat in my father`s arm chair. I would wait him out, until his energy disappeared out of my range. Hopefully he wouldn`t do something stupid like wait to catch me off guard. I wouldn`t be able to control the urge to restrict myself from obliterating him. Once I had set my mind had gone off on its own instincts, it switched over to an offensive mode and did not rest until I rendered the other party completely helpless.

Or worse, if I felt threatened enough I could end up obliterating my target completely.

"...I thought the factory burned down a couple years ago…"

Not just my ears, but my whole body flinched at the words that came from behind me. I turned to see a few of our classmates that had formed a circle with their desks, a clique dedicated to gossiping about many things that went on around this part of town, and those dwelling in it.

One of the boys caught me staring at him, his lip curling upwards, hatefully staring back at me,

"Tsu is staring at me," He mumbled to the girl next to him, who giggled flirtatiously in response; abandoning basic manners to impress her childhood crush. All of them completely incompetent, shallow and rude.

"You got a problem, freak?" He spoke up, directing the attention of the remaining classmates to me, every single pair of eyes fell on numb shoulders, their gazes weightless against my straightened shoulders.

"Oh, leave her alone, Tasaka-kun," Kitajima Maya stepped beside me, her hand fluttering over my shoulder after realizing that I would only duck out from under her gentle attempt at comforting me,

"Tsu-chan wasn`t hurting anybody."

Scowling, Tasaka went back to his group, while Maya beamed down at me,

"How are you today, Mari?" She asked, sugary sweet smile still placed on her face. No wonder the other students found her so likeable; everything about her oozed with sincerity.

"Some students have disappeared again." My attention was once again distracted from the girl and back to the clique centered in the middle of the room,

"Again?"

I had initially assumed that it was gang members, but after learning of the demon inhabitants on this side of town, I instantly assumed Hedoki as the culprit. He had survived our encounter, and was terrorizing the district. I stiffened, looking over at my shoulder to the boy seated at his desk, who was returning an equally as perturbed look, our thoughts in sync with one another.

"They ran away while we`re crapping ourselves here? I`m gonna go too." Another boy piped up from across the circle of desks. Shuichi removed himself from his desk and began to pace past the windows, stopping at the one on the farthest end of the front of the classroom, slipping his hands in his pockets. His attempt to look relaxed was futile, as he held his posture as straight as a board.

I noticed Kitajima`s eyes wander off in his direction as well, a certain longing stare fixed on the back of his head as he pretended he couldn`t feel both pairs of eyes baring down on him.

"Maybe they went to town. The local area`s pretty boring." Inoue spoke up, beside Tasaka,

"I think I`ll go too."

"Yeah right, as if you had the balls for that. Be more realistic." Tasaka shot her down, cackling in a manner that could only belong to that of an egotistical jock.

Quick to defend herself, Inoue furrowed her eyebrows and fired a shot at Kitajima in order to direct the negative attention onto someone else,

"At least I`m not as credulous as Kitajima Maya!"

Kitajima turned back to the conversation upon hearing her name, an insulted look upon her face. It was no secret that she believed in the supernatural causes of the disappearances that had been happening recently. She shook the chatter off and turned back to the boy idly staring out the windows,

"Ah, Minamino-kun! What do you think?"

Green eyes stared back at the girl, who was hoping for an interesting response from her usually quiet and withdrawn friend.

"…They might have just left on their own." Was his reply, dull and robotic as was most of his conversation between the two of them.

"Bo-o-o-ring!" Kitajima groaned, a slight smile appearing on her lips as she went in after the boy to get a more creative answer from him. She truly was credulous, but in such a lighthearted manner that it made her seem sweet, innocent.

"Aliens? Ghosts? Black hole? A sect?" She spit out possible answers, all very unrealistic in every aspect but humorous none the less. She stepped closer to him to converse more privately with the boy. I almost wondered if there was something she suspected of him, seeing that she had drawn herself to the both of us—the only two of her peers that were completely abnormal.

"I think that`s a bit far from reality." He answered her, chuckling a little to himself at her theories.

"Don`t you watch TV? Don`t you know aliens are living among us?"

One couldn`t help but find the girl charming in her naïvety, and I even found myself smiling a little.

But there were other personalities in the class that did not appreciate the non-biased form of attention she gave to the two of us, and out of childlike impulse, Tasaka picked up an eraser and chucked it across the room in Minamino`s direction.

To everyone`s surprise, Minamino`s hand raised as if he were going to scratch the back of his neck, but instead opened his palm to catch the eraser without missing a beat. He pulled the eraser forward and feigned surprise, as if it had all been coincidence.

I found myself repressing a form of excitement bubbling up my throat at his attempt at intimidating Tasaka in such a nonchalant way. I managed to tie it somewhere down below so that I wouldn`t draw more unwanted attention.

I found myself staring out the windows as well, looking over the town. I could feel the strange, lurking presence that had captured Minamino`s attention as well. I felt something in my stomach, anxiousness. The disappearances could not be swept under the rug so easily.

After cleaning up the room, the other two classmates assigned to tidying went off to change their shoes. Normally, I would have followed suit but instead, I went off in search of Minamino. I had felt the lurking presence grow sharper with every minute passing, as if the entity had loomed over the school building directly.

He was walking on the north end of the building, isolated in the empty hall with nothing to keep him company aside from that usual, pseudo casual posture. He paused upon hearing my footsteps echoing off the walls in an off-sync beat to his, turning to the side to verify who the rhythm belonged to.

"You feel it too, don`t you?" I asked, slowing as I drew closer to the boy, enough to quiet our words so that they could not be easily overheard,

"It feels like the presence from the other day." I shared the observation in hopes that he would confirm that it was only a hunch, quell the anxiety that had churned in my stomach out of concern for the family I was away from in the midst of all the disappearances. For all that I knew, Kazuma could have never made it to his junior high.

Before he could respond, there was a spike in the energy, a crackle, white noise coming through my ears as the smell of acid spread through the surrounding air. Hedoki was near.

Through a crack in the tile floor seeped the vile remains of the demon, horns forming atop the pile of vomit covering the corner of a door frame and flooring, a chasm as a mouth and stalagmites of acid as teeth.

"Kurama…" He hissed, trembling in his weakened state, "Kurama, we`re gonna kill you…. And then this town will become part of our jurisdiction!"

I felt myself bordering on the brink of destruction, thoughts blurring together as I began to quiver as I clung to the control over my actions.

I felt fingers wrap around my forearm. Minamino Shuichi gripped me tightly in an attempt to prevent me from attacking in the middle of the hall. He stepped in front of my line of sight before answering to the vomit demon for himself,

"Hedoki, have you forgotten that before, half dead, you said you wouldn`t step foot in this town again?" His words threatening as he leered over the remaining scraps of the demon.

"I`ll kill you both! I don`t need to be ordered around by you! I have on my side a strong ally!"

Losing all control at the sound of a threat, I lunged past Minamino, diving for the threat that was lying on the floor of the hall. Unfortunately, he saw my attack coming and flung himself through a window, shattering the glass on his way out. He was fast, disappearing off my radar within seconds as I stood in the empty hall, staring at where he had once been.

"If you can`t learn to control yourself, perhaps you should consider home schooling."

I turned to glare at the boy standing behind me, composing myself and feeling the razors on the sides of my arms retract into my "bones", sealing off the skin as if they simply did not exist.

Standing behind him was a deer in the headlights, Kitajima Maya. Brow, doe eyes met mine as hands clasped awkwardly, eyebrows raised, frightened. Shaky lips parted and inhaled a shallow breath before asking,

"What was that?"


End file.
